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Managing Licenses

Owned by Panna .
Oct 03, 2024
5 min read

Licenses come pre-installed on the appliance according to the software packages you ordered at the time of purchase. If you wish to upgrade an existing appliance with the Multi-Grid Management license, you must contact Infoblox Technical Support and follow the procedures in Viewing Licenses.
On a vNIOS virtual appliance, you can install licenses when you deploy the appliance. You must install both the Multi-Grid Management and vNIOS licenses on a vNIOS appliance. You can transfer the valid licenses of a vNIOS appliance on VMware from one ESX/ESXi server to another. For more information, refer to the Infoblox Installation Guide for vNIOS Software on VMware.
There are three types of licenses:

  • Maintenance licenses – Examples: Grid (or Keystone) maintenance licenses. The duration of maintenance licenses are one, two, or three years. You can obtain these licenses from your Infoblox sales representative.
  • Service licenses – Examples: Multi-Grid Management licenses. These are permanent licenses. You can obtain these licenses from your Infoblox sales representative.
  • Temporary licenses – You can enable temporary licenses through the CLI command set temp_license.

Before a maintenance license or a temporary license expires, an expiration warning appears during the GUI login process. The warning reappears during each login until you renew the license. To renew a license, contact Infoblox Technical Support.

Obtaining and Adding Licenses

A valid Multi-Grid Management license is required for deploying a Master Grid. You can upgrade existing NIOS and vNIOS appliances to use a Multi-Grid Management license. To upgrade your licenses, contact Infoblox Technical Support.
When you receive a new license key, it is in CSV (comma separated values) format with the following information: serial number, hardware ID, license type, end date, and license string. You can either upload the file to the appliance or copy the information and paste it in the text field of the Licenses tab of the Infoblox GUI. Note that you must copy the entire string—serial number, hardware ID, license type, end date, and license string—and save it to the text field.
To add a license:

  1. From the Master Grid tab, select the Licenses tab and click the Add icon.
  2. Do one of the following:
    • Upload License File: Click Select File and navigate to the license file.
    • Paste License(s): Paste the license key in this text field. You must paste the entire string in CSV format: serial number, hardware ID, license type, end date, and license string. If you are pasting multiple licenses, start each string on a new line.
  3. Click Save License(s).

The appliance validates the license and adds it to the table. Close the browser window and log in to the Infoblox GUI. If you are activating licenses for an HA pair, you must follow this procedure for both nodes.

Note: To transfer licenses between vNIOS on VMware appliances, refer to the Infoblox Installation Guide for vNIOS Software on VMware.

Obtaining Temporary Licenses

You can use the CLI command set temp_license to generate and install temporary licenses. This can provide licensed features and functionality for the interim, while you wait for your permanent license to arrive.
To generate a temporary license:

  1. Log in to the appliance through a remote console window. For more information on how to open a remote console window, refer to the Infoblox CLI Guide.
  2. At the Infoblox command prompt, enter set temp_license. The appliance lists the available licenses, and you select those you need.
  3. Enter the number of the licenses you want to install.
  4. Confirm the selection when prompted, and the following message appears:
    Temporary license is installed.

Viewing Licenses

If the appliance is part of the Master Grid, you must log in to the Multi-Grid Master to view license information from Multi-Grid Manager. If you have transferred licenses from one vNIOS on VMware appliance to another, you can view information about the new and replaced licenses.
In this panel, you can use filters and the Go to function to narrow down the list. With the autocomplete feature, you can just enter the first few characters of an object name in the Go to field and select the object from the possible matches. You can also create a quick filter to save frequently used filter criteria. For information, see /wiki/spaces/mgmadminguide/pages/911180172 /wiki/spaces/mgmadminguide/pages/911180172.
To view license information:

  1. Log in to Multi-Grid Manager on the Multi-Grid Master.
  2. Select the Master Grid tab -> Licenses tab. The appliance displays the following information:
    • Name: The name of the appliance.
    • HA: Indicates whether the appliance is an HA pair.
    • Address: The IP address of the appliance.
    • Hardware ID: The unique hardware ID of the appliance. The ID is highlighted in red if the license on the appliance was removed.
    • Type: The type of license installed.
    • Type Context: Depending on the license type, this field is blank or displays the attribute Model, which indicates that the vNIOS license supports a specific vNIOS virtual appliance model. The model supported is displayed in the Type Details field. This field is blank if the license does not control any attribute type.
    • Type Details: Information about the attribute type that the license monitors. This field can display the model of the vNIOS virtual appliance, such as IB-VM-550 or IB-VM-1050.
    • Expiration: The expiration date of the license.
    • Replaced Hardware ID: The hardware ID of the appliance whose license was removed.

Backing Up Licenses

You can back up the licenses installed on the appliance, in case you need to re-install them at a later time. Infoblox recommends backing up the licenses before removing any of them.
When you back up the licenses, Multi-Grid Manager creates a CSV file that lists the following information for each license: serial number, hardware ID, license type, end date, license string.
To back up licenses:

  1. From the Grid tab, select the Licenses tab.
  2. Click the Backup Licenses icon in the toolbar.
    Multi-Grid Manager generates a CSV file that contains all the licenses. You can then open the file or save it to a specified location.

Removing License s

You can remove licenses and reset the appliance to its factory default settings. For example, if you have an appliance running the DNSone package with the Grid upgrade, but you want to use it as a Multi-Grid Master, you can remove the Grid license. Infoblox recommends that you back up licenses before removing them, in case you decide to
re-install them at a future time.
this should be used with great caution as it can render an appliance unusable if the wrong license is removed To remove a license:

  1. From the Master Grid tab, select the Licenses tab.
  2. Select the license and click the Delete icon.
    Check the license that you are about to remove. Note that removing the wrong license can render an appliance unusable.
  3. Click Yes when the confirmation dialog appears.
  4. Close the browser window and log in to the Infoblox GUI.